She was an
affectionate child, with a quick sense of fun, and a droll little
coaxing manner, which usually won for her her own way, especially from
her father, who delighted in her and never could resist Marian's saucy,
caressing appeals. It required all Mrs. Gray's firm, judicious
discipline to keep her from being spoiled.

Georgie, who was nearly nineteen, seemed younger in some respects than
Gertrude, who was but three months older than Candace. Georgie, too, had
a good deal of the housekeeper's instinct, but she was rather dreamy
and puzzle-headed, and with the best intentions in the world was often
led into scrapes and difficulties from her lack of self-reliance, and
the easy temper which enabled any one who was much with her to gain an
influence over her mind.

Gertrude--but it is less easy to tell what Gertrude was. In fact, it was
less important just then to find out what she was than what she was
likely to be. Gertrude reminded one of an unripe fruit. The capacities
for sweetness and delightfulness were there within her, but all in a
crude, undeveloped state. No one could predict as yet whether she would
ripen and become mellow and pleasant with time, or remain always
half-hard and half-sour, as some fruits do. Meanwhile she was the
prettiest though not the most popular of the Gray sisters, and she ruled
over Georgie's opinions and ideas with the power which a stronger and
more selfish character always has over a weaker and more pliable one.

Marian was less easily influenced. She and Gertrude often came into
collision; and it was in part the habit of disputing Gertrude's
mandates which led her to seek out Candace on that rainy afternoon. In
the privacy of her own room that morning, Gertrude had made some very
unflattering remarks about their newly arrived relative.

"It's really quite dreadful to have a girl like that come to spend the
whole summer with one," she said to Georgie. "She hasn't a bit of style,
and her clothes are so queer and old-timey; and she's always lived up on
that horrid farm, and hasn't an idea beyond it. Everything surprises her
so, and she makes such a fuss over it. You should have heard her
yesterday when we were out walking; she said the Cliffs had been there
always, and some of the fashionable people had only just come."

"What _did_ she mean?"

"I'm sure I don't know. She says the queerest things. And she looks so
funny and so different from the other girls; and of course every